On 1 October 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Market Participants Division and Division of Market Oversight announced that they are extending their Brexit no-action positions in CFTC Staff Letter No. 26-28. The positions now run until 31 December 2027 at the latest, one year beyond the 31 December 2026 end date in the letter it replaces.
What the relief covers
The positions rest on four actions the Commission took for the European Union while the UK was still a member: two 2013 comparability determinations covering certain entity-level and transaction-level requirements, a 2017 comparability determination on margin for uncleared swaps, and a 2017 exemptive order that lets authorised EU multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and organised trading facilities (OTFs) operate without registering as swap execution facilities (SEFs). Once the UK left the EU, those decisions no longer reached UK firms, even though the UK had copied the underlying EU rules into its own law through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
The letter keeps two sets of positions in place.
For swap dealers, the Market Participants Division will not recommend enforcement against a CFTC-registered swap dealer that meets UK rules in place of the matching CFTC requirements, provided it does so on the same terms and conditions the EU comparability determinations set for the equivalent EU rules. This position ends on the earlier of 31 December 2027 or the effective date of any UK comparability determination the Commission issues on the same subject matter.
For trading venues, the Division of Market Oversight will not recommend enforcement against a UK-authorised MTF or OTF listed in the letter's appendix for failing to register as a SEF. Nor will it act against a counterparty that executes a swap subject to the trade execution requirement on one of those venues. This position ends on the earlier of 31 December 2027 or the effective date of a Commission exemptive order for UK-authorised MTFs and OTFs.
The appendix lists 25 eligible UK facilities, among them platforms run by Bloomberg, Tradeweb, TP ICAP, Tullett Prebon, BGC, GFI and Tradition. It includes the two venues added in March under Staff Letter 26-10, the MTF OptAxe Limited and the OTF Capitolis UK Limited. The Market Oversight division added both at the request of HM Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority staff.
What it does not change
The relief is narrow. Swaps executed on an eligible UK facility still have to meet the CFTC's Part 43 and Part 45 reporting rules and the swap trading eligibility requirement. Clearing rules also still apply. A US person's customer position that is meant to be cleared must go through a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant at a registered derivatives clearing organisation (DCO). Proprietary positions and swaps subject to the CFTC clearing requirement must be cleared at a registered DCO or an exempt DCO. A UK venue whose clearing arrangements route some trades to a clearing house that is not a registered DCO must have a rulebook provision enforcing these requirements to keep the relief.
The divisions also stress that the letter reflects staff views only, does not bind the Commission, and can be modified, suspended or terminated at their discretion.
A bridge that keeps being extended
The arrangement goes back to a 25 February 2019 joint statement by the CFTC, the Bank of England (including the Prudential Regulation Authority) and the Financial Conduct Authority, in which the Commission committed to extend its existing EU relief to UK firms once the UK left the EU. The CFTC chairman at the time described the measures in confident terms.
"They provide a bridge over Brexit through a durable regulatory framework upon which the thriving derivatives market between the United Kingdom and the United States may continue and endure," by J. Christopher Giancarlo, then Chairman of the CFTC
The bridge has so far been carried by a run of time-limited staff letters: 19-08 in April 2019, then 20-39, 21-24, 22-16, 24-11 and now 26-28. Each was meant to hold the position while the Commission worked with UK authorities to analyse UK law and, where appropriate, issue UK versions of the original EU decisions. The new letter says plainly that this work is not yet finished.
The letter also sets out how the UK side is changing. It notes that the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 allows HM Treasury to revoke retained EU law in financial services and replace it with rules designed for UK markets, set by the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority. The UK government has said that process will take a number of years.
Why it matters
For swap dealers with UK operations and for US counterparties trading on London venues, the letter removes a year-end cliff edge and keeps current compliance set-ups intact until the end of 2027. Compliance teams should update their internal references from Letter 24-11 to Letter 26-28, and confirm that any UK venue they rely on for trade execution appears in the new appendix. It is also worth tracking whether the Commission moves to formal UK determinations before the new deadline, because a determination would end the staff relief on its effective date, possibly with different conditions.
Separately, the CFTC has recently proposed to cut duplicative registration for commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors.
